Two Words

I’ve got two words for you…

But today I’m celebrating two words I don’t expect to hear again until school resumes in August: “What page?”

Because I teach students how to make drawings, we don’t have a lot of traditional “book work”. But we do have textbooks as references and sometimes I find it valuable to assign some reading and even to have students write answers to questions based on the reading.

Me: “Read chapter 12 and write the answers to the review questions at the end of the chapter.”
Student: “What page?”

Okay. It’s a chapter assignment, not a page. And it’s chapter 12. If only the authors had thought to put them all in order….

I will often refer students to a textbook to answer a question, especially if it is an answer that A) I just gave them, B) should be in their notes, but isn’t, or C) was a research assignment. Usually I will even tell them which book to look in.

Me: “You don’t have that in your notes? Look it up in the Mechanical Drawing book.”
Student: “What page?”

Hmmm. If only there were some way to look that up, like an index or something….

Many of the drawings I assign are based on examples from one of our books. Typically, these are labeled with chapter-illustration numbers. So the tenth illustration in chapter 12 would be figure 12-10.

Me: “Draw figure 12-10 from the Mechanical Drawing book.”
Student: “What page?”

Aaarrrrggghhhhh….. Now, there is a specific page number that I could give in answer to that question. But the truth is, I rarely remember the page number. If I’m looking for figure 12-10 I find chapter 12. If I open the book to chapter seven I need to go further in the book. If I open it to chapter 15 I need to go back. (If I really want to show off, I’ll use that index thing to find exactly which page chapter 12 starts on!) Once I find chapter 12 then I find figure 10. If I see figure 12-3 I need to go further in the book. If I see figure 12-23 I’ve gone past it.

I guess I never realized what a tremendous skill that is. I should be a rocket scientist. [Or a brain surgeon. Or a double-naught spy. Or just about anything else besides what I am....] Until then, I’ll relish these two words: summer break.